Darby O’Gill and the Little PeopIe, released in 1959 by the Walt Disney Company, is one of the best-known depictions of Irish themes in post-war American cinema. Its enduring influence in shaping impressions of Ireland and the Irish as a romantic site of pastoral simplicity and pre-modern cultural practices has long divided those with an interest in such representations. As a spirited and good natured rendition of Irish folklore, it might be linked in a positive sense to the aims and outlook of the late nineteenth-century Celtic revival. Cinematically, it has been praised for its acting, production values and the still impressive quality of its ground-breaking visual effects, with some critics rating it as one of Walt Disney’s highest achievements. Conversely, Darby O'Gill is often cited as the epitome of screen 'Oirishness' and interpreted as reductive, stereotyping and a typical instance of Hollywood's positioning of Ireland as a whimsical rather than worldly reality. This tension between praise and panning was present in responses to the film from the outset. Following its world premiere in Dublin the Irish Times asserted that 'Mr Disney is full of Blarney, but he can be forgiven because Darby O’Gill is the most successful Blarney brought to the screen in some time.' The figure of Walt Disney himself stood at the centre of this conflict of Old World ways and New World means. 'With his feet firmly planted in the ould sod [Disney] was stoutly maintaining his belief in the little people. We Irish, he said, no longer see them because “we are too busy thinking of other things."'
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